"Paula Bennett has declared Jami-Lee Ross is "not bloody bringing us down" and described the women who had personal relationships with the rogue MP as "victims" who are receiving National Party support."

"Paula Bennett has declared Jami-Lee Ross is "not bloody bringing us down" and described the women who had personal relationships with the rogue MP as "victims" who are receiving National Party support."

"Paula Bennett has declared Jami-Lee Ross is "not bloody bringing us down" and described the women who had personal relationships with the rogue MP as "victims" who are receiving National Party support."

"Paula Bennett has declared Jami-Lee Ross is "not bloody bringing us down" and described the women who had personal relationships with the rogue MP as "victims" who are receiving National Party support."

Not quite that. I'd not expect anybody in a senior management/governance position to behave in that manner. Of course some do. Sometimes karma gets them - perhaps this time...

Well, in theory recordings last forever, so even if you aren't senior management now, you might be at some point in the future. If have done things in my past I regret, that would potentially cause issues if I was to ever consider politics if someone went hunting and

was out to hurt me or embarasses me. I'm not the same person I was 10 years ago let alone 20, but there seems no statute of limitations.

Over the past year, Newsroom investigations editor Melanie Reid has been looking into the background and behaviour of former National MP Jami-Lee Ross. She has talked to a number of people who have given detailed accounts, recordings and documents of their close working and personal relationships with the controversial politician.

Some felt manipulated and intimidated by the way he goes about his politics and his social interactions. Others felt pressured not to speak out.

Today Newsroom presents, on the condition of anonymity, the stories of four women and the relationships which they now believe saw them variously groomed, used for access to information and power, and abused.

Each saw the MP speak out on Tuesday denying his leaders’ allegations of “harassment”, saying he was raised to respect all women.

Yesterday Ross, who is married with children, told journalists he was happy with how he had conducted his personal life and warned against anyone in politics trying to “lift the bedsheets”.

However, each of the women interviewed below wanted to speak out, now, to set the record straight.

I just read the Newsroom piece. If any of that is true, and there is no reason to believe it isn't, then JLR is a pretty nasty piece of work with zero credibility. Unfortunately, I have the impression from the recording and things being said that Simon Bridges isn't all that great either. He may or may not have violated the letter of the law. He certainly doesn't come across to me as someone with the moral fibre to be in any position of authority. @Networkn makes a valid point about sins of the past and people changing as they grow, but Bridge's comments are from the here and now and he doesn't strike me as someone I would want to invite to dinner. People who insult others behind their back and make comments with a racist component when they think they are having a private conversation are not straight-up. Either he has no principles or the ones he does have are not very worthy. Surely conservative politics can do better than this.

I think Bridges and Bennett are already down. And out. They may just be too outraged to realise it yet.

Sure, what JLR has done is underhanded, nasty, spiteful (and the rest), but even so I believe that it has left the leader and deputy with no viable future in National.

Bennett may have survived this and been a caretaker leader briefly until National elected a new one, but she's now perceived by many as being the person to brought Ross's personal life into the frame in a form of retribution and it would be incredibly difficult for her to build any trust with caucus colleagues after that.

IMHO, Bridges was a poorly performing leader, but he didn't deserve this. But politics is a rough game, and it's not always fair. He's either going to need a miracle, or he's finished.

What is frustrating is Australian politics is now looking better than ours dammit

When our politicians are stupid enough to vote alongside a moron like Pauline Hanson to support a motion to declare "It's OK to be White" - then have the PM backtrack and excuse the idiots by claiming that they "didn't know" they were voting for a popular slogan used by neofascists and the alt-right, then we'll be up there with the Aussies.

It's okay to be human - but not always. The motion was defeated - by a very narrow margin.

One may hope that politicians should be reasonably aware of "politics" in general - but apparently not over there.